


Concert

by TiffanyF



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-27
Updated: 2013-04-27
Packaged: 2017-12-09 18:10:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/776442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiffanyF/pseuds/TiffanyF
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shishido speaks out of turn. His doubles partner is far too understanding. Then there is music.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Concert

Shishido arrived at tennis practice early, hoping to talk to Atobe alone. He normally wouldn’t go out of his way to ask the diva’s opinion on anything, but he had to admit that he wasn’t sure how to get out of the mess he’d managed to land himself in. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to do it, but he’d reacted and spoken without thinking and caused way more problems for himself than he’d been expecting. He knew that his doubles partner wasn’t mad at him, it wasn’t in Ootori’s nature to get mad at anyone, but Shishido could tell that the younger boy was disappointed in him.

He walked into the locker room and found Atobe at the desk reading a book. Kabaji was close by, but that wasn’t all that uncommon and Shishido didn’t worry about talking in front of him. Kabaji kept his own counsel about almost everything and never seemed inclined to share secrets he overheard while hanging around Atobe. “Hey, Atobe, do you have time to talk?” Shishido asked, flopping down onto the sofa where Jiroh was normally asleep.

“Ahn, what is this, Shishido?” Atobe asked looking up from his book. “What could you possibly need from Ore-sama that you would arrive so early for practice? What do you wish to hide from everyone else?”

“You just have to make things harder than they need to be, don’t you,” Shishido said with a glare. “I think I made a mistake and need to know what to do.”

“It’s nice to know that you think Ore-sama’s opinion is as perfect as he is.” Atobe closed the book and turned to look at the other boy. “So Ore-sama will grace you with his full attention. What do you need to know?”

“Choutarou asked me to come to some kind of concert this weekend and I told him no,” Shishido said, ignoring the attitude from his buchou with practiced ease. “I don’t like classical music and he knows it, but he never told me it was him playing in the concert.”

“So how did you find out?” Atobe asked.

“Oshitari told me,” Shishido replied. “I guess he’s playing too, or something. Anyway, I want to know what I should do next.”

Atobe sighed. “That should be obvious, even to an idiot such as yourself, Shishido,” he said. “Go to the concert.”

“Yeah, I had already worked that out,” Shishido said with a glare at the other boy. “Oshitari was even kind enough to tell me where the concert is so I can show up and surprise Choutarou. But how do I get him to not be mad at me?”

“Shishido, you are one of the thickest boys Ore-sama knows,” Atobe said. “How important is music to Ootori?”

“Very, of course,” Shishido said. “He’s always careful of his hands so he won’t have to worry about not being able to play the piano again. I’ve seen him soak his fingers after a hard tennis match to keep the swelling down, even.”

“And how important would you say you are to him?”

“How the hell should I know? He’s my doubles partner. I like being around him, he’s a good kid that has a lot of potential. He’s fun to work with because his focus is so intense and he wants to win.”

“Of course he wants to win. Ore-sama would not allow him to play should he not,” Atobe said. “However, even Ore-sama knows that your opinion matters more to him than most of the other seniors on the team. He considers you his best friend as well as his sempai, Shishido, and he knows that you’ll support him no matter what. So, knowing that, what do you think he thought when you turned him down for a concert?”

Shishido sighed. “That I didn’t want to spend time with him. I’d already worked that out too, Atobe,” he said. “So far you aren’t being helpful at all.”

Atobe flipped his hair back and leaned forward. “Then allow Ore-sama to lay it out plainly for you, as you seem to be too dense to work it out on your own.” He folded his hands on the desk, eyes intense. “Apologize to Ootori.”

“What?”

“It seems simple enough,” Atobe said. “Those two words can mean more in a situation like this than anything else you might say to him.”

“But Atobe, you know as well as I do that he’ll forgive me even if he doesn’t really forgive me,” Shishido said. “How do I know that he’s sincere in what he says?”

“By showing him that you really mean the words you say,” Atobe said. “Shishido, Ore-sama does not care if you wish to surprise him with your appearance at the concert this weekend. Ore-Sama believes that would be a nice surprise for Ootori, but Ore-sama will not tolerate problems between one of his doubles pairs. You are the one who caused this problem in the first place, you are the one who is going to have to fix it.”

Shishido glared over at the diva. “You are absolutely no help at all, you know that?” he asked. 

“You just don’t wish to admit that Ore-sama is right, ne, Kabaji?”

“Usu.”

“You stay out of it,” Shishido said to the other boy.

“Usu.”

Atobe bit back a smile. Not everyone realized exactly how smart Kabaji was, but Shishido did. He knew that the other boy trusted Kabaji, or else he would have asked to talk with Atobe alone. “Ore-sama shall be generous, Shishido,” he said. “He will not insist that you take care of this problem at practice. However, he will insist that you have the problem solved before morning practice tomorrow, or else you will be running laps and working in the weight room with Kabaji rather than playing.”

“You would too, wouldn’t you?” Shishido sighed. “All right, all right, I’ll try and figure something out.”

“Ore-sama is glad that he was able to help,” Atobe said. “And since you are here early, you can help the first years set up the courts for practice. The time will allow you to think about how best you can apologize to Ootori.”

Shishido only just managed not to make a face at Atobe as he pushed up off the sofa and turned to leave the locker room. He didn’t know why he had thought that the diva would be able to help him in the first place. Atobe watched him go. “I wonder if he’ll work it out on his own, Kabaji,” he said softly.

“Usu.”

“You think so, ahn?” Atobe picked up his book and flipped it open. “Then I suppose we shall just have to watch and see who he chooses to speak to next. My guess is Oshitari. I imagine he’ll have some logical, if cold words for Shishido.”

“Usu.”

“At any rate, the extra training will be good for him.”

“Usu.”

Atobe raised an eyebrow. “Go keep an eye on the first years for me, please Kabaji,” he said. “Shishido is in no mood to do it and I don’t want him to cause more problems. Things are already bad enough.”

“Usu.”

Such a loyal friend was a treasure, Atobe knew that. He wondered, as he went back to his reading, if Shishido truly realized what he had in Ootori. Somehow he doubted it, or at least, doubted it had made an impression until the latest problems popped up. Some people were just too dense for their own good.

**********

The team wondered why Shishido wasn’t at practice the next day, or rather, why he was running laps and working in the weight room with Kabaji. Oshitari had a look on his face that said he knew the exact reason, but no one was quite brave enough to approach him. When he was in the right mood, he might tell them what was going on, but usually he would just start talking about something completely random that would, magically, appear in their class later that day. There were rumors going around that Oshitari could see the future, no one ever seemed to realize that he had been through the same classes they had and had a very good memory. Of course that didn’t explain when it happened to the third years, but Oshitari just smiled quietly to himself and watched everything, including Atobe.

“Oi, Atobe,” he finally said softly. It was the middle of an intense practice and the buchou was in his normal place in the bleachers watching every one. “When are you going to let up?”

“Ore-sama doesn’t know what you’re talking about, Oshitari.”

“Shishido is bright in his own way, but making him work like this isn’t going to help anything and you know it. So why are you doing it?”

“Ore-sama is being generous and giving him time to think,” Atobe said. “He came to Ore-sama and asked for advice. It is hardly Ore-sama’s fault if he chooses not to take what was given to him.”

“I’m sure that you gave him good advice, but there’s only one small problem with all of this.”

“And what is that?”

“Choutarou isn’t angry or upset with Shishido,” Oshitari said. “He understands what happened.”

Atobe’s eyes flickered over to his friend. “So let Ore-sama see if he understands what you are saying,” he said. “Ootori does not care that his best friend and favorite sempai flat out refused to attend one of the biggest concert competitions of the year when Ootori shall be performing.”

“Yes.”

“Ore-sama feels that you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Atobe, this is Shishido we’re talking about. He knows how much Choutarou loves music, but he can’t stand classical music, so Choutarou understands that he wouldn’t want to come to the concert.”

“If that is the case, then why did Ootori invite Shishido in the first place?”

“To be polite,” Oshitari said.

“Go play your match, Oshitari,” Atobe said. “You are giving Ore-sama a headache.”

“Is he going to come?”

“Ore-sama does not know.”

“Yes you do, you just don’t want to tell me.”

Atobe stood up. “Jiroh, wake up,” he shouted. Gakuto, who was closer, looked around and jumped, knocking the sleeping boy out of the path of a tennis ball. Atobe sighed and started down the steps. “That boy.”

Oshitari sighed as well. There were days that Atobe was truly infuriating, and then he would do something like that. It made it extremely hard to hate the diva. Although he had tried many times, it just didn’t work.

**********

The concert that weekend was held in one of the larger concert halls in Japan and had performers from around the Kanto region. Shishido managed to get a seat in the second level near the edge of the balcony, which meant he would actually be able to see the performers rather than just hear them. He felt naked without his hat on, but it was a moderately formal event so he’d had to leave it at home. To try and cover his discomfort, he spent some time looking around the lower level and almost fell out of his chair when he spotted a very familiar figure sitting in the first section, two rows back, in one of the prime seats. Not that it was a surprise to see him in the best seat in the house, Atobe would never settle for anything other than the best. But Shishido wasn’t sure why he was there. And without Kabaji in evidence, although that didn’t mean anything. Shishido had seen the younger boy appear from nowhere to help Atobe out with something. 

Shishido sat and suffered through the concert and performances. He hadn’t realized it was a competition until he arrived and read the posters up. He really felt like kicking Choutarou for not mentioning that. Not to mention Oshitari for keeping it from him as well, and they were both performing in the competition portion rather than the general performance section. Shishido knew he was biased, but he thought that Choutarou was the best in the piano division, hands down. Luckily the judges agreed with him and the younger boy won first place. Oshitari placed second in his group, losing to a younger boy who had played so well that even Shishido could tell that he deserved to win. 

After the concert was over, he made his way slowly through the crowd, using Oshitari as his landmark, and found he’d been right. The pair from Hyotei was together. “Oi, Choutarou,” he said with a grin. “Way to go, that was awesome.”

“Shishido-san,” Ootori smiled. “You did come.”

“Of course, as soon as I found out that it was your concert, I made the changes needed to my schedule. I wouldn’t miss something so important.”

“Ahn, it would seem that Ore-sama was right again,” Atobe said, appearing from nowhere. “And now, Choutarou, are you ready for dinner?”

Ootori grinned. “Yeah,” he said softly. “Shishido-san, thanks again for coming, it means a lot to me. I’ll see you at practice tomorrow.”

Shishido watched, shocked, as Atobe wrapped an arm around Ootori’s shoulders and led him out of the building. “Did I just see that?” he asked Oshitari.

“I believe we both just did,” Oshitari said. “However, I will admit to being completely shocked. I had assumed that Atobe was dating Jiroh based on how he always treats him.”

“I’d rather not think about Atobe dating, period,” Shishido shivered. “He hurts Choutarou and he’s dead. I won’t listen to any excuses from him.”

“And I believe he knows that, too,” Oshitari said. “Well, seeing as things have slowed down here, why don’t we go find something to eat? Or do you have other things you need to take care of now?”

“Nope, I’m free,” Shishido said. “But how is Gakuto going to take the news that we went out to dinner?”

Oshitari smiled. “Gakuto will just have to deal with it. Come, I know a good restaurant near here.”

Shishido shook his head and fell into step next to his team mate. He’d have to have a firm talk with Atobe and one with Ootori. He wanted to make sure that no one was going to get hurt.


End file.
